bill in an attempt to pacify republicans. and i have to say it's not terrible but the question is will it do enough to protect black and brown folks targeted by these restrictive state bills? then there's immigration. democrats hopes of including a path to citizenship in their $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill were dashed after the senate parmentarian advised against it leaving 8 million undocumented immigrants in limbo. then there's the womens right to choose. the house passed legislation friday that would codify roe v. wade. this was in response to texas governor gregg abbott turning the state into the next season of the hand maids tale, but it is likely to be doa in the senate. while the debates about progressives and the establishment reigns supreme on twitter we want to forget about those beltway labels and talk about what the federal government is really doing that will directly impact you. let's get into it with

congressman hakeem jeffries, chair of the house democratic caucus and thrilled to have him on the show this morning. you just heard me go over this long laundry list of things to do in the house that's going to have a disproportionate impact of black and brown people in this country. so i want to start with police reform. what went wrong there and is our hope gone in passing some sort of police reform in the house or senate? >> well, the majority of police officers i've encountered here in brooklyn and queens and across new york city and the nation i believe are hardworking individuals who are in the community protecting and serving, but it cannot be denied that we have a police violence problem in america, a police brutality problem in america and a police use of excessive force problem in america that disproportionately impacts black and brown communities. and so we can't simply wash our hands of the issue at the congressional level notwithstanding the fact that

senate republicans have clearly abdicated their responsibility to rise to the occasion and to try to do something transformational on police reform. i think in the short term what we need to do, tiffany, is that the department of justice will have to continue its aggressive efforts at oversight of pattern and practice investigations and of holding police officers and departments that are out of control accountable while we try to find another legislative pathway forward. >> yeah, i think one of the challenges with that, though, when we kick it to the department of justice is this is always after the violence has already happened, after a body has fallen. one thing i found interesting in reading about police unions, they contribute overwhelmingly to members of congress. do you think that police unions filling the coffers of some folks has anything to do with the hesitation of passing these bills particularly since qualified immunity is quite the

sticking point with the republican party? >> well, you know, that's a question that i think should be put aggressively by all of us to senator tim scott and to the senate republicans who were charged with negotiating with karen bass who's done a tremendous job on this issue from the very beginning and senator cory booker. it is clear that the police unions got involved in these negotiations at some point over the last few months and that's when things turned south. because there were areas of agreement as it relates to accountability and enforcement and disclosure requirements as well as certainly criminalizing the choke hold was the legislation i've been working ongoing to the incident with eric garner. and then when the police unions got involved all of a sudden things began to fall apart. >> we'll keep our eye on it, and i just want to say you were very

instrumental in passing the criminal justice reform bill. however, you know, the first step act is the first step act because it requires a second step, which a lot of times lands at the state level. i want to switch gears to voting rights. look, i looked at this voting bill that senator joe manchin has introduced. it's not terrible. it does beat back like the food and water restrictions in georgia. how confident are you that this bill will actually be able to pass and be implemented before congress goes on recess? >> well, this was an important step forward, but it was just a step and we have to complete the process and get both the freedom to vote act which contains some very important provisions as it relates to dealing with voter suppression along with hr4, the john robert lewis voting rights advancement act which will

repair the damage that was done to the supreme court by the original voting rights act when the supreme court had that terrible decision in 2013, shelby county vs. holder where they struck a blow against the preclearance provision and really opened up the door to all of the voter suppression that we've seen over the last eight plus years. and so i think it's the combination of the two pieces of legislation, both the freedom to vote act and the john lewis voting rights advancement act that can get us into a better place. it's my hope that the senate will take up this legislation as early as next week. they'll secure a majority of support plus the vice president, and then they have to confront the realities of the filibuster. if the republicans are going to continue to block fundamental voting rights legislation, then we need a voting rights exception to the filibuster so we can protect our democracy.

>> so you think there's any chance that the filibuster will be thrown out? because, you know, at this point if these bills don't pass, i wonder if the democrats can hold the house or the senate. and i think a lot of people wonder if the republicans will take control of congress and immediately kill the filibuster. so what's the solution? because as long as that exists it's going to be gridlocked in congress. what's your thought on that? >> it's a great question. i think we will be able to hold the house because we're going to continue to get things done decisively for every day americans. we're going to crush the virus. we're going to provide relief and assistance, create millions of good paying jobs, cut taxes for working families and lower costs for every day americans. so we're going to act decisively on the virus and the economy, but we do have to deal with these issues of social, racial and economic justice as well. and i think, you know, our argument will be that, yes, the filibuster should be revisited

in its entirety particularly given its history dripping in racism connected to the protection of slavery and jim crow. but we're saying at this moment is that there are already exceptions that exist to the filibuster. the budget reconciliation process is an exception to the filibuster. republicans used it in 2017 to pass the gop tax scam where 83% of the benefits went to the 1% to subsidize the lifestyles of the rich and famous. there's a judiciary exception to the filibuster. republicans have used it twice to steal two supreme court justices, one from president obama, one from president biden. so all we're saying is that at least -- the least that we can do is have a voting rights exception, a democracy exception to the filibuster as well. hopefully that argument will prevail upon senators manchin and sinema. >> okay, so something i know on saturdays you do your congressman on the corner in

brooklyn. and i imagine this is something that impacts a lot of folks in your district. there's the eviction moratorium and the end to federal unemployment benefits. senator cory bush and elizabeth warren introduced a bill to offer some protection on the eviction moratorium as well as aoc introduced a bill to calling for pandemic unemployment to extend to february 2022. do either of these bills have a chance to pass? and if not what should people who are facing eviction and have no money, what should they do? >> well, fortunately here in new york governor hochul's partnership with the state legislature have done the right thing. they've extended the eviction moratorium through the early part of next year. at the same time across the country to your point, tiffany, what we have to do is make sure that that $46 billion in assistance that congress allocated in connection largely with the american rescue plan gets out the door to provide the relief and assistance to tenants and to the small landlords that

congress intended. right now that $46 billion, only $6 billion has been allocated by the states. that's a shameful number, and we're working with treasury department looking at congressional legislation that is possible as well as working with the states to try to get the tenants the relief that they need to avoid any evictions that should not take place. >> before i let you go i do want to talk about these subpoenas that were issued this week. do you think -- look, i think a lot of people are excited to hear and see some accountability from the people who may have aided the insurrectionists. the subpoenas, i'm not quite confident these folks will actually show up and testify on congress and be court up in court battles forever. you were a former impeachment manager. are there loopholes to get people to show up and actually testify before congress and? and what should the january 6th committee to impress upon these

folks you need to show up and explain yourself what happened on january 6th in your communications with the president, et cetera? >> the most important distinction that exists between the obstruction that we confronted during the initial efforts, during the trump years to hold an out of control president accountable during the subpoena enforcement standpoint and where we are right now is we have a different department of justice. because as you know the responsibility to enforce subpoenas and/or face civil or criminal consequences by failing to show up in defiance of a lawful congressional subpoena falls with the department of justice and the u.s. attorneys office in washington, d.c. the trump administration, of course, refused to enforce these subpoenas at the department of justice level. we're hopeful that the biden department of justice following the rule of law will take a different approach and that will

make all the difference in the world in making sure these individuals are called to account for their behavior and we can present the truth to the american people. >> okay, i'm way over time, congressman, but i have to ask you this. do you suspect any of your colleagues in the house or senate intentionally or unintentionally helping the insurrectionists from january 6th? and if so, who? >> well, i'll leave that to the investigators led by chairman thompson to uncover, but it is my suspicion that there are individuals who are part of perhaps a conspiracy to undermine our free and fair elections and to delegitimize the biden presidency from the very beginning as steve bannon has indicated was their intention all along. and if that, in fact, took place we're going to expose them and they will be held accountable. >> all right, thank you so much for being here. as you know your brother dr. hassan jeffreys is a friend of

the show so we're happy to have the other jeffries on this morning. and don't go anywhere because up next the images of the appalling treatment of haitian immigrants at the texas border has the biden administration facing intense criticism. what's next for the situation at the southern border? we're going to talk about it next. don't go anywhere. g to talk abot next don't go anywhere. spraying flonase daily stops your body from overreacting to allergens all season long. psst! psst! flonase all good. we've got you taken care of, sgt. houston. thank you. that was fast! one call to usaa got her a tow, her claim paid... ...and even her grandpa's dog tags back. get a quote. with relapsing forms of ms... there's a lot to deal with. not just unpredictable relapses. all these other things too. it can all add up. kesimpta is a once-monthly at-home injection... that may help you put these rms challenges in their place.

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estamos orgullosos de haber creado el sistema de reciclaje. convirtiendo a san francisco, en la ciudad mas verde de america... sigamos haciendo la diferencia juntos. and if you were sent back there what would happen? >> i'd probably die because

leaving haiti leave today and tomorrow -- you can leave today and you don't know about tomorrow. you can receive a gunshot. it's very, very terrible. >> this is the plight facing many desperate haitian migrants. 2,000 were flown back to haiti. more than 12,000 are in immigration proceedings. but many have opted to go to mexico rather than to return to haiti where residents have been rocked by gang violence, a crumbling government and last month's devastating earthquake. the u.s. especially envoy to haiti resigned after horrifying scenes of haitian migrants -- joining me now yamiche alcindor

and jacqueline charles, a caribbean correspondent for the miami herald. jackie, i want to start with you because i want you to paint the picture of what's happening in haiti that's causing people to flee. because when i see the footage of what's happening in the country there it's unimaginable and it looks uninhabitable. >> we have to remember haiti was struck by an earthquake in 2010 that killed over 100,000 people. and since then the promise of building back better has not been realized. take for example the u.s. government to rebuild the country's largest hospital. 11 years hospital that hospital has not been rebuilt and we're in the midst of a global pandemic called covid-19. at the same time we have gang violence. the same week delrio was happening the u.n. agency said over half of the people impact by the earthquake struck on august 14th have not received

humanitarian assistance not because there's no aid but because the aid trucks could not get through the roads through the south from porto prince because it was controlled by gangs. when you hear people not wanting to return to haiti this is what they're talking about, the fact there's armed violence and all kinds of problems in the country not to mention the president himself was assassinated on the 7th of july. >> it's unimaginable what's happening there, yamiche. and you have the distinct position of not only covering the white house but your family is of haitian descent. >> what the hell are we doing here? what we witnessed takes us back hundreds of years. what we witnessed was worse than what we witnessed in slavery.

cowboys with their reigns again whipping black people, haitians into the water where they're scrambling and falling down when all they're trying to do is escape from violence in their country. >> so what exactly is the biden administration doing? and do you think that some of the criticisms of the administration are fair? >> well, the biden administration is using a trump era rule called title 42 which is based in the idea that we're in a public health crisis to turn away migrants and to many of them to deny their access to the asylum system here. now, there are a lot of haitian migrants who are allowed to stay in the united states who are going through the process, but there are a lot of people who are looking at the biden administration and saying why aren't you getting rid of title 42. there's also an investigation going on into the department of homeland security and those border agents who were on those horses. but the president said it was wrong, it was dangerous, it was not a reflection of who we are as a country. it did take them a few days to

make that statement. there are a lot of people who are angry saying his silence was speaking volumes. and i think the anger we saw in congresswoman maxine waters, that is really echoed in so many communities especially haitian-american communities. haitians are people who have been traumatized because all the different things jackie just so smartly laid out but also because we remember the last administration called haitians and said they were from an s-hole country. haitian-americans who were courted by president biden says he's breaking his promise with them to treat them with justice here. there's also real pressure the biden administration is facing from constituents in florida to say what are you going to do differently here? let's remember daniel foot, the former special envoy to haiti said he was resigning because he saw the biden administration's policies, not the administration's policy because this is biden administration's

policies as inhumane and deeply flawed and there's hubris going on here saying the united states can fix everything and they should not be deporting people back to haiti, a country that cannot have all these people going back there because of the situation there. >> absolutely. you make a really good point about the haitian population in florida. the same way people coddle, you know, the cuban population who are mostly republican voters in florida, we have to figure out a way to harness that political power for the folks in haiti. look, i think a lot of us looked at these images of people being targeted by these men on horsebacks and saw the disparage treatment of people in black skin versus everyone else. also a lot of people implications and people raised their hand then and said wait a second there are haitian children who cross into this country who never garner this level of national attention. what is your advice i would ask of this administration to get out in front of this problem and

speak directly to haitian people here in america and offer some humanity to the haitian migrants? >> you know, what's interesting you mentioned gonzalez. at the height of the haitian refugee congress there were 213 unaccompanied haitian minors who were sent back to cuba. and right before this happened ipdel rio you saw a biden administration trying to say, hey, our policies are different, we care about haiti. they named daniel as a special envoy after congress was asking for that and then we have this domestic issue called immigration. and that's what people are looking at. these is the same biden administration who came to haiti and deported haitian voters but there was not a haitian leader at that table. a lot of people were still upset about the involvement of the clintons after the 2010 earthquake. and today president biden has a problem and it's called haiti.

me and my colleague norra gomez, we wrote about this in january. we said if they don't deal with haiti and they don't address a policy on haiti then haiti was going to become a huge problem for this administration months after it takes office, and that is what we're seeing today. so we're watching closely to see how the biden administration addressed the issue of haiti on the island and how does it make amends with the haitian-american community that says they've been the bearer of a double standard in terms of u.s. immigration policy. >> yeah, absolutely. i mean all lives matter folks, do all live matter or not. thank you for bringing much necessary context to all of this. and coming up, putting a spotlight on the stark differences in media coverage of missing people of color and the high profile case of gabby petito. i know you've hubd about that all week. we'll have a unique take on it next. all week we'll have a unique take on it next

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i wanted searches done. prior to me getting to the spot where his car was found they told me that night we've already done an extensive search. >> again the body was found september 1st and they took until now to identify. have they given you any information about an investigation into the cause of death? >> no. to them jelani didn't mean anything. there's no effort, there's no push, there's no nothing that

was being done about my son. >> the agony of a missing child is a pain that no parent should ever experience. 25-year-old jelani day a black grad student went missed on august 24th and his body was identified just this week, nearly a month later. but the body of gabby petito, the 22-year-old missing white woman was found in less than two weeks after massive media attention. while both cases are tragic and our hearts go out to both families the disparity in press coverage shows how the media frequently disprioritizes. when it comes to the missing all lives in fact do not matter. when was the last time you saw this level of media coverage for missing black men or indigenous women? joining me now to discuss is a doctor, an associate professor of communication in african-american studies at loyola and founding director of the carson institute for race,

peace and social justice. and a mary catherine, a member of the cherokee nation of oklahoma and board member of alum native. so happy to have you both. mary, i want to start with you. you know, i'm looking at the coverage, and again i want to stress that our hearts go out to the petito family and everything that happened there. but when you consider the wide range of people who have gone missing and are never afforded this level of media coverage, it speaks to who populates newsrooms and it speaks to whose lives are prioritized. in wyoming where she was found at least 710 indigenous women mostly girls vanished from 2011 to 2020. not a single one received national media attention. i wonder how you receive all of this. >> it's incredibly heart breaking. and just like you said my heart goes out to the family. no one should lose a loved one to homicide. but that same report you just cited also stated and concluded

that from 2000 to 2020, that 20. year span out of all the homicides in the state of wyoming 21% were indigenous people. even though we make up a smaller percentage of the population we're at the top in terms of rates of homicide and violent crimes, and yet the media does not cover the murders of our native men, women, children and men and native persons. so this is a huge, huge crisis for indian country. >> absolutely. and i have to be honest a part of this felt like the cable news trap. let's try to case of the missing white woman because so frequently that it worked before and it's like the media still has not caught up with the change in demographics of this country and prioritizing black and brown lives. what happened with jelani day who he was just found, but this is a really sad case. you look at kelly price, you know, a famous gospel singer.

her attorney says she's safe but there are still questions around her whereabouts this morning. i'm just curious how can we change this dynamic when it comes to people of color? >> thank you for that question. i want to begin by just highlighting lisa robinson, the reporter from wbal who put the story out there. she was one of the first to put the story out there to talk about the missing white woman syndrome. i think we're at a moment now we need to push the media and push police officers and push the fbi to begin to prioritize looking for black women and girls, black men and boys with the same kind of determination, the same type of commitment that they use when a white woman goes missing. it's part of what i've been calling the damsel in distress ideology. we have to all pull together when a white woman or white girl goes missing. yes, my heart goes out to the families but i'm also thinking about all the missing black folks, all the missing

indigenous folks, all the missing latinx folks not given the same attention. gabby petito on tiktok had 268 million searches as everyone chimed in. i think media sets the tone, history sets the tone of who gets prioritized, whose lives matter and who we should focus on and i think this is a moment to change that. >> you make a good point. i'll tell you 15 or so years ago i was a producer at america's most wanted and i will say when cases get that level of national attention it increases reward money, the attention people actively looking for folks. there are more eyes, more resources. there's public precr for these law enforcement agencies to make, you know, efforts to find folks. that has a direct impact on these families. you know, i want to ask you, mary catherine, about when it's not a sympathetic victim. because that's something that also happens with law enforcement. they deem who's a sympathetic victim.

so if it's a run away that changes, if it's someone who's a former sex worker that changes. it shouldn't but it does. what's your thought on how law enforcement prioritizes people based on their own moralistic judgment compared to, you know, white women who it typically doesn't matter what your life was like, we're not digging into your background, we just want to find you. >> that's absolutely the case. on many of the cases i've worked on where my law firm represents victims families we've reached out to law enforcement often to investigate. and oftentimes the family is told well we know how native youth are. we know native youth run away and it's not a crime to be missing. instead of taking this fact the family is saying she would not leave in this manner, she was happy. in many instances it's a woman who has small children. if you think about olivia's case where her brother matthew begged the fbi to search the reservation for her, and begged the fbi for almost an entire year to look into the lake. there are significantly huge

bodies of water on that reservation. the fbi didn't care. they had jurisdiction and they had the authority to search for her body but it wasn't a priority. the media was covering it and there certainly would be no political consequence to the fbi for not searching for olivia. finally, finally about 11 months later and found her body at the bottom of the lake and they've still not done a criminal investigation. so it very much is a real life effect. because what the fbi all too often does as well as state and local authorities is blame the victim and tell native families it was their fault they're missing or just not a crime to be missing because we know they're all missing because a crime occurred. >> that's so tragic and this also applies to trans people who go missing, particularly trans people of color who go missing not afforded this level of attention. let's hope the media's face changes quickly. thank you so much, doctor for

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♪ start here. walgreens makes it easy to stay protected wherever you go. schedule your free flu shot and covid-19 vaccine today. i was scared all day because i didn't know where it would come from. i didn't know where any harm would come. i've seen a lot of things being done to people in there and i didn't know if i was going to be next for it. i've seen people getting jumped, people getting cut and hit with weapons, chairs, all types of stuff. being in there with the correction officers and them making my stay even harder. what they do is they starve you. they won't feed you. i can't even count but the worst -- the worst time i was starved is when they starved me for four times in a row. they starved me breakfast, lunch, dinner and breakfast again. >> he was just 16 years old when he was falsely -- falsely

imprisoned and sent to rikers island in new york surrounded by adults. he was released after three years having never stood trial. he suffered immense mental health issues from the trauma he endured and two years after his release tragically he died by suicide. rikers island is known for its horrible conditions. one woman described it quote, as a horror of abuse and nefwlekt. just last week an inmate became the 11th person to die at rikers this year alone according to "the new york times." yesterday eight lawmakers sent a letter to president biden calling the condition at rikers a, quote, humanitarian crisis. joining me the is brother, and a new york state senator and chair of the committee on children and families. jabari, i want to start with you here because what's happening there is gut wrenching. i cannot even imagine. there's a spate of inmate

deaths, cellblocks unguarded, staggering staffing shortages caused by guards who have essentially gone awol. detainees are being deprived of food just as we heard broader say. wtf is happening at rikers. and what does it say as a society we are standing by allowing this to happen? >> thank you for having me on here, but i think you hit the nail on the head. we cannot keep standing by and letting this happen. when i went there in one of the housing units i had to wade through trash and dead roaches and talk to incarcerated inmates who were just cleaning up themselves. some saw people who had been there for days when they were expected to be there for hours and given bags to urinate and defecate in because there was no facilities available for them. it's an absolute nightmare and humanitarian crisis. >> this is subhuman. first of all, my condolences because every time i see your

brother or talk about your brother it is just heart breaking. it's heart breaking to watch and heart breaking to hear. so thank you for taking this tragedy and bringing attention to this because this is something that we need to address. i just want to tell the audience the demographics of rikers. 56% of the population there is black. 33% latino, hispanic. only 7.5% white. you know, i have to say this says a lot about how we prioritize and view people of color in this country, that we would allow them to live in these subhuman conditions. what did you learn from your brother's time in this horrific place? >> well, tiffany, this is -- rikers is just a horrible torture chamber. he learned it the hard way. i've learned it the hard way, and, you know, realistically the mayor said he was going to shut it down. we haven't had this done this

promise afford today the people of new york. and so elias johnson became another body -- another person that ended up dead as well as the other ten people who are dead just this year. that ratio is one per month. how many bodies -- how many of us have to die before the mayor or the d.a. or the judges take control? the department of corrections is out of control. covid does not have -- it does not represent restorative justice. they only want punishment and they use torture tactics. he should have been the last one to die on that island or due to the island. >> essentially we stood by and allowed a chilled to get tortured in rikers, which is just absolutely tragic. after that you kind of wonder how is this place not shutdown. jabari, i'll go back to you on this. one, what happens at rikers is not specific to rikers. you do have loyola prison in

louisiana, parchment prison in mississippi and prisons all across the country where this type of subhuman treatment is tolerated. but specifically at rikers this isn't the first time this has been in the news. lawmakers are very aware what's happening there. i imagine the federal government has to be very aware of what's happening there. so what's the delay? what's the problem with shutting this place down and bringing some sense of humanity to people. no one deserves to live look this. why is it hard to shut this place down? >> i would say there are two delays, one delay being political. people such as the mayor and the governor have the political will -- and the second is the constant messaging, the messaging this is merely a crisis of staffing and it's truly a crisis of mass incarceration. it's not about getting better guards or more guards. there need to be fewer people at rikers and fewer people in prison. >> i'm curious, did you visit

your brother while he was in rikers? and have you been back to rikers since? >> so, yes, my brother, his entire time on rikers i've gone there many times, me and my mother. and the conditions was deplorable. and since my brother had passed i do go back and i do a lot of protesting about rikers and do a lot of advocacy. actually during covid i brought masks, a box of 500 masks to the staff. and then i came back with masks during covid last year with more masks, another box of 500 and said this is specifically for the detainees there. and they wouldn't -- they didn't want to give it. they said they'll distribute it the way they saw fit, which i feel it's a tragedy. people are dying from covid on rikers as well. it's deplorable but it's also something that we as the people have to make sure our city council and the mayor are held

accountable for as well as the officers gnat are depriving people of food. >> when i heard that clip with your brother with my colleague it was actually tragic to hear. jabari, i want to show you a clip from the jay-z documentary time, the kalif broward story. a 16-year-old child remember who never stood trial but who is simply there because he could not avoid prison. take a look. ♪♪ ♪♪ >> imagine sending a child into something like that.

it is disgusting to watch. what can we at home who are watching this outrage, what can we do to bring not only attention to rikers but just our prison system that is awful disproportionately to folks who look like all of us on this screen? >> well, one, that clip is horrifying to watch not only as the chair of the children and family committee on seeing essentially a child being brutalized in that manner but also a former teacher and knowing that some of my students may have to endure the school to prison pipeline. some things nationwide we need to focus on is how do we decarcerate? a big thing is the cash bail. the two tiered system saying if you are rich you can wait at home and if you're poor you can stay in prison while awaiting trial. that needs to be abolished nationwide and getting people out on supervised release. we need to find ways to get people out of prison and out of jail because new york and the nation at large lock up too many

people and incarcerate too much. and it's not a system that works and only leads to deeper frustration, destabilizing families in communities and so further problems down the line. >> yeah. and just a reminder to our viewers, a woman who openly attacked the capitol admitted in court was allowed to not only not going to jail but go to mexico. this is america. thank you so much for being here. and up next i'll try to make sense of the new abortion ban legislation sweeping the country. a lot happening in the country we need to address. that's coming up after the break. we need to address that's coming up after the break. hey lily, i need a new wireless plan for my business, but all my employees need something different. oh, we can help with that. okay, imagine this... your mover, rob, he's on the scene and needs a plan with a mobile hotspot. we cut to downtown,

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understand what they have done to generations of people? i'm from in that era in 1973 with the law. i had already had two bogus abortions that stopped me from having kids. it changed my whole life. do these people really know what they are doing? do they understand that from my point my life was ruined for the rest of my life because unthinkable things that i had to go through from that. thank you. >> wow, well, first and foremost, celeste, thank you so much for sharing such a powerful and personal story with us, and to answer your question, no, absolutely, they do not understand. and by "they," i mean the men, the men who hold legislative power to pass these ridiculous abortion laws as if they have an

iota of a clue. you know who needs to be held accountable, the group of women who have enabled these lawmakers to continue to pass restrictive reproductive laws. take marjorie taylor greene, for example, who got into a shouting match with democrats on friday. >> taught in church? >> nuts. listen, if you don't want to have an abortion, i've got good news for you. you don't have to. you don't have to have one, but taking away a sense of agency over other women's bodies, you are forcing them to face complications like financial instability and dangerous abortion procedures like the one that celeste unfortunately went through. now, recently states like texas and oklahoma have successfully passed restrictive laws, and who knows how many other states may join that list.

on friday the house passed the women's health protection act which would allow health care professionals to provide patients with an abortion that's by any limitations a state may impose, like texas. but frankly that bill faces an uphill battle in the senate, and we can't look for help from the increasingly right wing supreme court, which will take up the case at the end of the year that could actually overturn roe v. wade. the only way you can stop the surge of these anti-abortion laws across the country is by voting and removing from office the people who stand between you and the liberty you have over your own body. this is just part of the reason that 18 states have enacted 30 voter restriction laws. the state houses are where these laws are passed, so while federal elections tend to suck up all the oxygen in the room, guys, pay attention to your state reps and state senators and make sure they represent your values and not your

tyranny. so thank you so much, celeste, for a very open and vulnerable question and for reminding us what's at stake when it comes to reproductive health. and to all of you watching at home, remember, we really want to hear from you. we want your burning questions about politics or policy, but they do have to be on video. so ask us your question in 60 seconds or less, and don't forget to tell us your name and where you're from. you can get it to us by sending an email to crossconnection@nbcuni.com or by tagging your video on twitter or instagram with the #crossconnection, and together we'll make it make sense. in the next hour i've got a super panel fired up to talk about trending topics including disgraceful scenes of haitian immigrants from that texas border camp. plus, we're on the watch in r. kelly's federal sex trafficking trial. and i've got a personal health scare testimony i want to share with you in hopes that it helps others. t helps others

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welcome back to "the cross connection," everybody. moments before vice president kamala harris was set to appear on "the view" yesterday was the interview was suddenly delayed because host sunny hostin and anna navarro were told they

tested positive for covid-19, although it was likely a false positive since later test came back negative. eventually the vice president addressed the appalling treatment of thousands of haitian migrants at our southern border. >> i've been very clear about the images that you and i both saw of those law enforcement officials on horses. human beings should not be treated that way, and as we all know, it also evoked images of some of the worst moments of our history where that kind of behavior has been used against the indigenous people of our country, has been used against african-americans during times of slavery. >> all right, joining me now, comedian, producer and host of the podcast "to be continued," lynn nguyen, executive director of run aapi, and stephanie senior editor and staff writer making her cross connection debut. stephanie, i want to start with you. welcome to the show. happy to have you on the panel this morning.

i want to have you kick us off. i know you're passionate about what's happening at the southern border when it comes to haitians. something i find interesting, narratives about immigration frequently leave out black folks. there are more than half a million black undocumented people in this country. we often overlook this population. when you're left out of narrative, you're also left out of policy changes. give me your thoughts on what's happening at the southern boarder and what needs to happen. >> first and foremost, thank you for having me on "the cross connection," you know i love the show. this really impacts my heart. >> stephanie -- all right, just i'm going to go to lynn on this h i could say the same thing about the asian people in this country, asian immigrants who are undocumented as well. give me your take on what's happening.

>> yeah, i mean, tiffany, this is -- and i know cristella can agree. she's a fellow texan here watching what's happening at the border. for us to be focusing on the issue of agents and horses and the horrific images we've been seeing in the media. the administration is able to solve a very immediate pr problem, right when the larger issue being pushed by advocates for months is the continued use of these immediate deportations. we talked on title 42, but again, for immigrants and whether that's the black, the latino, the asian communities, there will always be this perpetual foreigner experience, right? that unfortunately it's just always been part of our experience in seeking belonging in this country, right? so historically it's just like always been this way. so whether it's the pain of family separation. i mean, this is just so uniquely felt among members of the community of color and a number of immigrant communities. we have to remember what makes the fabric of america today and

really meet that moment. >> absolutely. stephanie, i understand we have you back, so please finish your thought. we didn't hear any of it, so you get to start from the top. i think we lost stephanie again. that's okay. cristell, a, you're up. we'll come to you. something that i think is unfortunate that happened is the pathway to citizenship met a roadblock this week in the senate when the senate parliamentarian advised against including it in the $3.5 trillion bill happening in the house. it's really frustrating to me that people who did not build this country, you know, they were not, you know, forced here. this is stolen land from the native american community have such strong opinions about who's an american and who should be allowed in this country. i'm curious what's your take on the pathway to citizenship. what's happening and what should happen? >> well, first of all, the

pathway to citizenship, the parliament dealt the community a blow, but the community is always used to that, so the parliament was not the only option to try to get the citizenship passed. any kind of immigration reform because for so long people are used to the immigrant reform completely being -- being problematic and having the passage to it. there's always people that say, no, no, no, and honestly, i think it's actually connected to what we were talking about about the border with like the treatment of the agents, you know, with the haitian immigrants is that we don't understand immigration. and until we understand it, we can't change it, and by understand it, i mean what you were saying about haitian immigrants being part of the immigrant conversation. i've always said that, you know, for some reason latinos, i feel like we won the face of immigration, right? so when we talk about

immigration, we always think latinos, my oldest brother became a citizen in 2016, and i went to the naturalization ceremony in south texas in the rio grande valley, and there were so many different countries that were represented there that it was a reminder of how many people come to this country seeking refuge, wanting to become part of this country, you know. i think until we learn what the problem is, especially when we talk about the agents at the border, when they're using the methods that they're using which i don't like to talk about because it's so traumatic to people, but mind you, this isn't something, this isn't like the methods that they just started using months ago. this has been in place for years. i grew up in a border town, and let me tell you, the power that the agents have been used to receiving and being allowed to have is pretty extravagant because no questions are asked, right?

the idea is if you wear a uniform you must be -- you know, you must know what you're doing, you know, but we never question why are we doing this. so i think we're still -- i think we're still on path to have a chance, and i know that it's like a blow that we got dealt, but it's not the end of it, and you got to have -- you got to have hope. this is the best time we've had, the best chance we've had to passing it. >> absolutely. stephanie, i think we have you by phone, okay. i want to give you a chance to make your points on haiti. >> thank you so very much. like i was saying, i really appreciate this opportunity to be on "the cross connection." this is a topic that's very dear to my heart. i am a first generation haitian american. my family was born in haiti, and i was the first one to be born in america. i've had struggles, but i've always had options. the migrants that are coming from haiti, they're looking for options. they're looking for the same opportunities that i had received, and so many in this

country treated as a binary that if you vote democrat or republican. the thing is the u.s. policy has to change. we have to treat haitians with humanity and dignity and respect because when the cubans come in, the afghanistans come in, they're largely welcomed but every time haitian people say we want a chance at a better life, we're always told go back, to go back into the line. where is the line for us? i just want there to be more compassion and generosity of spirit and simple grace because haiti, for whatever reason, you know, the world wants to punish haiti. we're the first black republic that fought for our freedom and independence and got it, and the world has sought to make us pay. just show us a little bit of grace. >> grace and compassion indeed. i want to take a hard turn here because we got to talk instagram, there was a new report from "the wall street journal" that reveals that

facebook's own research confirms that instagram can be deeply toxic for teen girls. the research reportedly found that instagram exacerbated body image issues for one in three teen girls and among teens that reported suicidal thoughts, 13% of british users and 6% of american users traced those thoughts to instagram. the findings are part of a larger investigative series, and a top facebook official responded with a blog post accusing the paper of mischaracterizing facebook's work. so that aside, i'm going to say, linh, that instagram being toxic for teen girls, i don't know if that's specific to just teen girls. we all have our friends who are on there, i'm even guilty of it, you know, of putting pictures and i'm like, oh, let me just add a little filter and smooth me out or make my hair look shinier. when i was younger, we had magazine covers that we were trying to compete with. i can't imagine having this little device make you feel crappy about you all the time.

what is your take given that if i may announce, you're expecting a child yourself who will be born, so what's your take on all this? >> tiffany, we've got to do a whole segment on this. how many of us when you post something, you're like glued to your phone to watch how many likes are coming in, right? of course the focus here is on our youth, on young users, but this just stands across pretty much every single instagram user, any social media user, you know, and yet we've just given it so much power and collectively we almost have to decide what kind of boundaries do we need to set? when you're scrolling, it's also hard to not believe what you're seeing as true, right? the way we can apply these filters. there's just a natural pathway to feeling inadequate, feeling as though we're not doing enough. feeling some anxiety, depression, of eating disorders. i can't even imagine what that

must be like as a teenager at a time when you feel so much immense pressure to have part of your life so public and perfect, right? and yet 40% of instagram users are under the age of 22. you know, so i just -- i'm very curious to understand whether or not we need an additional platform, we need more surveillance, curated algorithms. if it's not instagram, it's facebook. it's tiktok, it's snapchat, and you're right, tiffany, i am expecting my first daughter, and i just -- i can't -- i just can't imagine a reality without social media. it's just so hard to separate the two. >> yeah, it's chaming, and cristela, this is really like a scripted curated version of our lives. even on my page, here i am before i go on set. i'm not posting pictures of me like bored on my couch on a sunday or when i'm sad or had a fight with somebody. you know, so what are we to make of these platforms that we're addicted to but that are

destroying us? >> you know, the thing with instagram is that instagram is a whole collection of like after pictures, right? >> yeah. >> we don't do the befores and it's a new problem, i think, that we're dealing with, especially with, you know, with the studies talking about younger girls because i'm 42, and i was allowed to have that awkward stage of my life where i was trying to figure out what i was, who i was, you know. you're kind of -- you kind of come into your own, right? but with instagram and other social media platforms, you're expected to look amazing from the get go, and that's a lot of stress, and i think that one thing that we have to realize is that now we're at the point where for me i have these issues where i look at people. i'm a stand up comic, i had a bit of mine go viral because someone that was like very good looking lip synced to my bit.

that bit got more attention with them than it did with me, you know. oh, i should be looking like that to get attention for my joke, you know? and not even that, but the algorithms tell you what they want you to see, so you know, it's like they're not even looking at it. they just present it to you, hey, how about this, and you go down this click hole where it's just like, oh, wow, i didn't even know i needed to do this. and that's the thing. some people feel like they need to do it now because they saw it. >> right, exactly. and i want to stick with you, do we still have stephanie? i want to make sure. i know stephanie -- are you with us? yes, i'm still here. i have another question for cristela. >> i agree with what everybody is saying, i feel like for a lot of people, especially young girls we see what's on instagram and we think it's real. no, people are literally taking thousands of pictures and just putting that one, that one snapshot that seems to be a

reflection on your life, don't judge your life. you don't know what's going on behind that picture. i've taken a lot of pictures and i was absolutely miserable, but i have to let the world know that i'm happy. snap out of that. i wish people would tell young girls it's not real, it's a mirage, a collection, a digital photo album. >> tell young girls that and women over 40 as well, right cristela? we can all probably use that lesson. cristela, i want to come back to you because i want to talk about this request, a request from congressman joaquin castro. a congressional watchdog group found that -- despite making up roughly 18% of the rest of the work force, latinos only made up around 12% of the media industry from 2014 to 2019. now, i do want to say that we are led the nbc universal chair caesar conde has made a

concerted effort to turn people here, workers here 50% people of color in front of and behind the camera. we have nbcu academy trying to create a pipeline for people of color. this is my life's work. it's been a long-time frustration, and i'm heavily to make sure this show is representative, like you see on the screen today. but being in media, cristela, i'm sure this is something you've experienced. >> absolutely, you know, it's that thing where -- so i think one of the biggest are problems we have is that if we don't have more of us in the rooms, what i find personally in my career is that sometimes i find myself being the only one in a room where i have to explain a culture that is foreign to someone while i pitch a story or while i pitch a show. and you can't assume that people are going to understand a summary of your version of the culture, you know, where they would actually want to take a chance. so it's this thing where we have to change the narrative, and actually, it's this conversation

that i think we should have more often as people of color we grew up in a culture where we watched a lot of white tv shows, a lot of white media. >> right, exactly. >> and we understood it, you know. we had -- but why don't we have that chance now coming to us? because you realize the more specific we are with our narratives, the more you'll realize that we're universally connected, you know, so it's not about -- we might look different than what you think we look like, but guess what, we live in the same country, and while we're not identical, but guess what, we still live in the same country. >> absolutely, we're way over, cristela, we're like three minutes over so they're like yelling in my ear, we got to go. i apologize, linh, i wanted you to weigh in here, but we will have to have you guys all back when stephanie can be on screen with us. thank you so much, cristela alonzo, linh nguyen, and stephanie guerilo.

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all right, well, now r. kelly's fate is in the hands of a jury with deliberations beginning late yesterday, and they will resume on monday. the horrific details unearthed during the five weeks of testimony included accusations of the 54-year-old grammy award winning singer abusing young women, girls, and boys. prosecutors say his tactics included isolating some of the alleged victims in hotel rooms, shooting video recording them having sex with him and others, and there was also testimony revealing that he secretly married aliyah when she was just 15 years old so that the late actress and singer could have an abortion. i'm joined now by dream hampton,

filmmaker writer and executive producer of the 2019 documentary "surviving r. kelly." it was revolutionary, also with me salamis till et, cofounder of a long walk home and professor at the rutgers newark. thank you for making time on a saturday thank you. i'm sure you know your documentary was so -- it was ground breaking and really it helped catapult the charges to be brought to r. kelly because you had the most interaction with the survivors, i'm curious, what do you think justice looks like for them? >> it's such an interesting question. i think that when we talk to them on camera, i remember noting that none of them talked about him facing charges or going to jail. i don't even think they thought it was a possibility. they hoped that he would finally own his harm that he's been

causing for decades, and that he would stop it. a lot of them talked about him seeking help. i'm sure all of them -- well, i know from having worked with them that not one of them wouldn't benefit from some kind of financial restitution that would put them into the professional kind of therapy that they need to begin a healing journey that is, you know, going to take possibly a lifetime. and that's not what our project could do, you know, and i've been thinking about that a lot lately, about what could real justice look like in this case. obviously i'm standing by for the verdict that's going to come out of new york, but i've always been having this on my heart over the past couple of weeks, the past month. >> so let me ask you, because if r. kelly is found guilty, whatst he facing? i want to point out to our

viewers this is just one trial. he also faces federal charges in illinois on child pornography, state charges in illinois, and state charges in minnesota, but in this case what could potentially be his fate? >> i mean, we're going to see potentially it could be -- the man -- such a rigorous and rigid strategy here, it could be an unprecedented number of years for us to see in terms of this case and the survivors coming forward. i did want to put out the historical context here why it's a really meaningful case. two things, one thing in general it is really hard for survivors who have been sexually assaulted in the past with the statute of limitations to come forward. this is what part of #metoo activists have been advocaing for, expanding the statute of limitations. by using the man act there's a way in which you can kind of get

around what are still really rigid statutory limitations in other states. the other thing i think is really important for this case for just everyone is that when this is happening in france and it's still happening in the united states that we're actually taking the experiences of children seriously when it comes to sexual violence, right, black girls, underage girls, and we're really trying to give teeth to the things that are already on the books. so i just want to say that those two things, the statutes of limitations and statutory rape charges, this is what is really one of the legacies of this trial, the guilty verdict comes back. >> dream, she brought up a really good point because we witnessed r. kelly do questionable and criminal things while he was allowed to amass hit after hit, chart topper after chart topper. i knew i know what was going on with aliyah, they dressed this grown man and teenage girl dressed alike.

there was also the free r. kelly hashtag. i hear people wanting to blame parents, calling the women group pis, but it gets charter on social media with some men, never mind the black women who were his victims, what does it say about our culture that this is still a debate in small pockets of society? >> yeah, i mean, i think about the work that salamisha and her sister have been doing in chicago working with young victims of gender and sexual violence, and yes, i mean, way before we get to the courts, we are dealing with a culture that devalues particularly black girls, but overall we're dealing with rape culture. overall we're dealing with patriarchy, and these are kind of trying to like climb this mountain and make progress is many lifetimes of work, right?

i have been shocked. i didn't -- by the way, the new r. kelly hashtag and movement, this idea of sanctioning and boycotting and divesting from r. kelly culturally and financially was began by two women before the documentary aired, and we featured them in the docuseries, but i know that that's like the right, you know, way to go. it has, you know, forever resulted in actual, you know, consequences when we divest, you know, from supporting someone who is literally using this money to run his operation where he is trafficking, you know, young girls, post teenagers, teenagers. i also, like you said, know that there is a free r. kelly hashtag, largely began by two ex-employees of his who are running troll farms, but i can't

deny being in the black community and from the black community of detroit that there are supporters of his and they are basically telling us through their actions and through their support of r. kelly that they don't value black girls, and it doesn't just begin with the victims and the survivors that we featured on surviving r. kelly, this begins with the videotape, a rape tape of a 14-year-old girl that went viral pre-internet in the streets in 2002. >> hearing you say that makes me want to shout, somebody anybody, sing a black girl song. thank you for an amazing documentary, you both have to come back. we appreciate you so much. s a, lamisha has a new podcast called "because of anita" feature the first conversation ever between anita hill and christine blasey ford. i will certainly be listening for that. a sneak peek at the documentary about legendary funk master rick james.

but first, i have a personal testimony that i'll be sharing with you all about my health. stay tuned for that. about my hh stay tuned for that. i'm not hungry! you're having one more bite! no! one more bite! ♪ kraft. for the win win. we did it again. verizon has been named america's most reliable network by rootmetrics. and our customers rated us #1 for network quality in america according to j.d. power.

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so this week i'd like to share a personal story with all of you in hopes that it will help many of you who may be going through the exact same thing. some of you who follow me on instagram may know that this time last year i was actually fresh out of the hospital on bedrest recovering from a major surgery. for years i lived with intense, debilitating and shooting pain. i endured extremely heavy periods and despite my best working out effort, i had a constantly protruding stomach. after hours in an emergency room one day convincing doctors that there was actually something wrong with me i discovered that what i was dealing with was not so uncommon at all. just like more than 25 million other women, i had fibroid tumors. i thought if i could live with these tumors, maybe the pain would go away, but it never did.

what got me to finally address this issue that was draining me, vanity. around two years ago i began to lose my hair. it was falling out in clumps. i even started taking pictures of myself when i woke up to document my hair loss. i knew it had to be fibroids because my mother had actually gone through the same thing, and so like any good journalist, i began to research, and when i read about the disproportionate impact fibroids have on black women, i was shocked. so it was important to me that i have a black woman doctor, dr. lynn lightfoot told me that she could perform my surgery. she could cut around the fibroids around my uterus, and if i want to have kids i better go out there and get pregnant as soon as possible and then have another surgery, or they could remove my uterus entirely and the fibroids and painful periods would be gone. but so too would my ability to carry children. so i was already over 40. i wasn't married, and i had never met this baby i was

supposed to have, so was i to live with pain, go bald, and slice my body in half twice? i made the decision that was best for me and opted to have a full hysterectomy. comfortable with my decision i was ready for surgery, but there was only one problem, i had no steady job. i was in the middle of auditioning for this show, if you guys remember, and i had no steady income, despite the perception that everyone who appears on tv is wealthy, i will let you know i was not paid a dime for appearing on any network then, and i had no health insurance. so like many of you, i was ill with very few options. so i looked into paying out-of-pocket. maybe i could dig in my savings, gather some coins, but not quite. this type of surgery and the stay in the home was going to cost me tens of thousands of dollars that i just didn't have, and that's where obamacare came in. i signed up, and the day it went into effect was the same day i had my surgery, and this, my

friends, gave me an entirely new appreciation for how important covering pre-existing conditions are to so many of you out there. so for those who are squeamish, now would be a good time to look away, but i want you to see the size of the fibroid tumors doctors removed so you have an understanding of what i was dealing with. i was carrying that around for years. i stayed in the hospital for nearly two weeks under the great care of dr. lightfoot and my medical team, and after a few weeks, i was mobile, and after a few months, i was sitting in this very chair launching this very show. so here we are a year later, and i've had countless conversations with women across the country who are in physical pain and mental anguish as this issue impacts millions of us is rarely discussed. that is until now. when we come back, i'll be joined by the real mvp, mother of nba superstar kevin durant

and a doctor to talk about symptoms and answer all the questions you all may have. don't go anywhere. stay tuned, we'll be right back. it departs. being first on the scene, when every second counts. or teaching biology without a lab. we are the leader in 5g. #1 in customer satisfaction. and a partner who includes 5g in every plan, so you get it all. without trade-offs. unconventional thinking. it's better for business. most bladder leak pads were similar. until always discreet invented a pad that protects differently. with two rapiddry layers.

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downy unstopables welcome back. so in the last segment, you saw my own battle with fibroids, which most women will experience by the age of 50. studies have shown that black women are two to three times more likely to have fibroids, encounter symptoms at younger ages and are more likely to be treated with hysterectoies compared with our white counterparts. joining me is dr. sahimi hawkins, and the real mvp ms. wanda durant, an inspirational speaker who's been very open with her battle on fibroids. she also happens to be the mother of nba superstar, kevin durant. thank you so much, ladies for being here. dr. simi, i want to start with you because this is something we

don't get to talk about a lot. it's rarely discussed in a public setting, yet, it's impacted so many women. for me i talked about my hair was falling out in clumps, which was terrifying to me. it has since grown back and is still growing back, but there are many symptoms of fibroids that some women may not even know this is what's bothering them. walk us through what women should be looking for and how they know this something they should address immediately. >> absolutely, one of the most common symptoms of fibroids is heavy menstrual bleeding. everybody's talking about the anemia and fatigue that comes with it. fibroids can cause an array of symptoms. someone may notice their abdomen is larger than it used to be. they're working out, they're trying to get their abdomen flat and it won't. or back pain, there's so many causes of it. some women have subtle symptoms,

they may just have a change in their discharge, and i don't want everyone to run out and say fibroids if they have that. and some silent symptoms like infertility. >> so ms. wanda, you and i talked before about some of the things you experienced, and i was so moved by your emotional testimony because not only did you have fibroids, but you had other challenges as well. you talked about what it felt like that as black women, our bodies are not prioritized. our health issues are not brought to the front and center as they should be. talk about what you went through with fibroids. >> yes, as we discussed last week, i had just recently been diagnosed with fibroids, but over the years i had all of the symptoms of fibroids but never was fibroids considered until a couple -- about a year and a half ago, my doctor suggested i get a scan, and the scan showed that i had fibroid, but over the years, i had those symptoms. but because i'm in menopause now, the fibroids have slumped

because of low estrogen and progesterone, which is normal in menopause. it is alarming to me i had so many symptoms, i had hair loss, heavy menstrual cycles, i had fatigue, and hair loss as i mentioned, and it was never considered. so that really bothered me once i realized that fibroids could have possibly been the reason for all of that. >> and you know, because it's not discussed a lot, we don't always recognize those symptoms as fibroids. dr. hawkins, i will tell you i had a scar as a result of the hysterectomy, and i was so shamed about it and self-conscious about it and how i knew this problem was so prevalent is because, you know, when other women i would talk to them, they'd say, oh, let me see your scar. look at my scar. it was like everybody had this scar. so because it's so common, the treatment is also questionable, right? so why are so many black women treated with hysterectomies when

there are clearly other options. some women do not want to go that route and they feel like that's their only option. >> yeah, and a lot of that lays on the health care provider. i will say that we should take full ownership in that. unfortunately sometimes providing women, especially black women, there are studies that have looked at this with minimally invasive options, meaning could we have done this laparoscopically instead of having such a scar that you're saying you had or do they have other options altogether. there are options now to shrink fibroids. of course there are options to just remove them or do what's called an em bow low desertization. unfortunately, the truth is a lot of providers will feel like a hysterectomy is just an easier route to go. >> that is unfortunate, and ms. wanda, i think you brought up something really important, and that's being menopausal while

going through fibroids. those symptoms may take on an entirely different look. talk about what it's like going through fibroids, and also going through menopause, did it exacerbate hot flashes? did it impact your mood? just explain what you're going through. >> i would say yes. the hot flashes are on 100 i must say and gosh, it's hard to deal with, and it has affected me. my hair recently just started falling out and thinning out, and i had really thick hair, so my doctor told me that's a possible symptom of fibroids, and as we discussed with the black women's health at the round table last week, there are symptoms during menopause that sometimes are attributed to other conditions. like i have thyroid issues. i have some other health issues and some of the symptoms have been attributed to that and as i said earlier, it was never brought to my attention that it could possibly be fibroids, so

now i am really researching some of the symptoms that i'm going through and the correlation with other illnesses along with my doctor to see, in fact, if i should take the next step and have surgery. i don't want to get a hysterectomy, even though i'm in menopause, that's a part of my womanhood that i don't want to let go so easily. we are coming up different ideas of what we're going to do next. so i'm now in the process of figuring out how we're going to deal with the fibroids. >> well, keep us posted, we definitely want to keep up with your health, ms. wanda, and dr. hawkins, you know, a lot of people -- my friend says we should have a book on what to expect when you're aging, same way we do with what to expect when you're pregnant. what we go through in our bodies, you know, it's constantly changing each decade it felt like for me. for women who saw my testimony and they're like, oh, no way i don't want to be in the hospital for a week. sometimes people are in the hospital for hours, it's not even an overnight surgery,

people are different. can you talk about what impact fibroids may have for fertility, for people who are younger and do want children, they may have a lot of questions about the best treatment for them. >> absolutely and i think one of the things that comes to a lot of women's mind as soon as they find out their diagnosis is their fertility, especially if they may have been asymptomatic, a lot of women find out about their fibroids when they're pregnant. they find out with their first ultrasound, which leads me to the point that you can get pregnant with fibroids. a lot of times it depends on the location and that about to try to get pregnancy. there's that subset of women who have a very difficult time getting pregnant with fibroids because of that location. location is what matters. i always encourage the partner with their primary physician as well as reproductive physician to say do the fibroids need to be removed.

is it okay and healthy for me to get pregnant with fibroids. am i looking at miscarriage and preterm delivery because we don't know how to predict exactly how it will be affected. >> i'm so thankful to you guys for having this conversation. i had five grapefruit fibroids that had to be removed. everybody's different, please talk to your health care professionals and thank you, dr. hawkins and ms. wanda for being here. good luck with you. we'll keep in touch with you on your health going forward. coming up, alex witt talks to michael cohen about donald trump suing his niece and suing the "new york times." plus, cohen gets his take on the subpoenas for some of trump's allies. but up next, rick james like you've never seen him before. i'm so excited about this next segment. you don't want to miss it. segment. you don't want to miss it. it can all add up. kesimpta is a once-monthly at-home injection...

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>> cocaine may have been a hell of a drug, but that man was a hell of an artist, the original super freak. now to this day when you hear he and tina marie belt out fire, it stops us cold in our tracks. kind of like mary jane and a new show time documentary captures the many sides of this very complicated and multitalented singer. joining me now is sasha jenkins, he's the director of the sound and fury of rick james. there's a word there but for some reason we cannot say the full title of the documentary. i'm terribly sorry, but you guys can google the documentary. so i have to say i loved this film. i found it really interesting that you did this film with ty james, rick james daughter. she was the executive producer on this. you get into pretty touchy subjects including his abuse of women, his drug use, but also his taltalent. he's joining us by phone because of technical difficulties.

what made you want to tell this story, and how was it working with his daughter? >> well, you know, thanks for having me. rick was way ahead of his time. you look at artists like pharrell today who can be interested in so many different genres of music and incorporated into what he does. rick did that long ago, so i felt that his story was extremely contemporary and very modern and ahead of its time. and as far as working with his daughter, i explained to her early on, listen, in order to get an authentic portrait of who your dad is, you've got to tell the good and the bad. it has to be balanced. i believe in something called journalism, something that people seemingly have lost sight of, but relying heavily on journalism and balance and ty was with that, so it was a great working relationship with her. >> i love that, and i appreciate your passion and commitment to journalism in telling this story because we did get to see a full human being, a flawed human

being, and a talented human being. i couldn't tell in the documentary, i watched it twice. that's how good it was. i couldn't tell was he mad at dave chappelle? i mean, because he participated in the charlie murphy true hollywood story or did he feel like he was being mocked which i know you intimated. where did he stand on that? >> i personally believe it depended on the day. i think if he would have had that dave chappelle moment in 2021, it would have broken the internet, so he understood that it was something that reintroduced him to a new generation of folks. but he also fancied himself, and he didn't fancy himself, he was indeed a very talented musician and wanted to be known and respected for his musicianship, but he was also funny, a bit of a comedian, very naturally, not trying to be funny, so i think it's a mixed bag. it depends on what day of the week it was. but i feel like at the end of the day, he recognized what it did for him, and it put him in the public eye yet again.

and as someone who struggled with addiction, there is an addiction to sort of being seen and noticed, you know, when you're a celebrity of that caliber and that goes away, when that energy goes away, that high goes away. so receiving that high again, that natural high from being recognized is something i'm sure he appreciated. >> yeah, the wildest part of this documentary was when he was into it with the music exec in his office. i don't want to say what happens. i want our viewers to watch the documentary. it was really fascinating and thank you so much, sacha jenkins for the work that you did on this doc, and i encourage everybody to watch it. coming up on the sunday show with jonathan capehart, valerie jarrett will be on to discuss this tuesday's ground breaking the barack obama presidential library in chicago. a lot of controversy around that. some of the folks who live in that neighborhood aren't so happy about it. i'm sure valerie and jonathan will dig into that. i know i'll be tuned in. i hope you will be as well. and we'll be right back. d we'll.

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all right, that's our show for today. it went by so fast. time flies when you're trending. i see you twitter, thanks for tuning in, thanks for watching. i'll be back next saturday at 10:00 a.m. eastern standard, and now it's time for my friend the lovely and beautiful alex witt. >> back at you. so good to have you there. thank you so much. doesn't time fly when you're having fun or trending in your case. all right, i'll see you next saturday. >> thanks, alex.

chlkt and very good day to all of you from msnbc world headquarters here in new york. we're at high noon here in the east, 9:00 a.m. out west. welcome to "alex witt reports." we begin in washington where the committee investigating the january 6th riot is about to get its hands on trove of new information regarding president trump's actions that day. the white house says president biden will not block donald trump's records from being released to the committee. it comes as the probe is moving full steam ahead, already issuing subpoenas to four of the president's top allies. more on that in just a moment. but first, a busy couple of days ahead on capitol hill as congress is facing multiple deadlines. monday, the senate is set to take up a bill to avoid a government shutdown. that legislation, however, will need support of at least ten republicans to pass, and so far zero are on board. also next week, the house is set to vote on that bipartisan infrastructure deal, even as moderate and progressive democrats remain